A neglected pony cost its Ashington owner £6,369 when he appeared before magistrates on a cruelty charge.

A neglected pony cost its Ashington owner &#xA3;6,369 when he appeared before magistrates on a cruelty charge.

Paul Stanford, 53, was fined &#xA3;2,000 and ordered to pay &#xA3;4,369 costs at Bedlington Law Courts when he admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the colt between May and June last year.

They also ordered that the owner be deprived of the pony.

Caroline Goodwin, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said the animal was found tethered on land beside Stanford's home in Ellington Road.

The pony was thin, dehydrated, depressed and suffering from diarrhoea. It was also lame because its hooves had also been allowed to grow excessively long.

The colt was tethered by a 20ft-long rope with no access to water and only poor-quality grazing land within reach.

She added: "The animal was dehydrated and when it was offered water it drank litres and litres and litres."

Since the animal was taken into care by the RSPCA, its condition has been transformed and it is now fully fit.

Nick O'Mara, for Stanford, said that he has kept a number of horses and other animals over the past 30 years and has never been in trouble with the RSPCA or the law before.

Mr O'Mara said a five-gallon water container was kept at the field and regularly topped up, but the field's fences have been removed by vandals and Stanford believes that the water dispenser was tipped over by either them or by the pony.